The discovery of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep suggested that sleep was not, as it was thought to be, a dormant state but rather a mentally dynamic one. Your brain is, in fact, very active in this state, almost to the level at which it is when a person is awake. Yet during this active stage in which most dreams occur, the movements of the rest of the body are completely stilled.
In normal sleeping patterns a person usually passes through five phases of sleep, the fifth being REM. The sleeping human passes cyclically through these five phases throughout a night's rest. These phases can be defined in electrical activity of the brain; much like the activity of the heart is often defined. The technique of measuring the electrical activity of the brain is call Electro-encephalogram, or EEG. When the electrical events of a person's brain are graphed on a electrical magnitude versus time axis the graph of a person who is in different stages of being asleep or awake appear to have different levels of electrical activity occurring in the brain....more

Acorn - Seed to potential personal growth. Planting seeds that will bear fruit later in life.

Acquaintance - Unconscious knowledge or information about some aspect within yourself; a person with whom you are acquainted. A reunion with someone or something.

Actor (Actress) - A role you are playing in your waking life. Not the 'real' you, wish fulfillment. You wear a mask in the social world, acting out unconscious intentions developed from childhood and early life experiences. A desire to be noticed.

Adam- Orginal aspects that within the psyche pertain to masculine behavior {see anima/animus}. Temptations, and the consequences. Patriarchal thinking, masculine over feminine. Imbalance.

Addiction - Dependency on something or someone. A loss of control and/or weakness. Driven by unconscious fear or attitudes. Surrendering self awareness to someone else or something else other than what is best for you.

Addition- Are things adding up as they should? What is the total sum of your life? Adding up the sum total of who you are and where you are going.

Adoption - Bringing in new aspects of one's self. Assuming new responsibilities, perhaps those of others more than yourself. Being adopted means that the child within you needs to be released more often.

Adultry - Giving energies and attention to something that is separating you from inner growth, or from things that are important in your life. May represent a merger of aspects of yourself deemed unnatural by some but are essential for balance in your life. Adultry may indicate a fear of weakness in your relation to spouse or even different aspects of yourself. An expression of repressed unconscious sexual desires considered indecent. Dreaming of your partner committing adultery may indicate fears and weaknesses in your relationship.

Advancement - Leaving behind old or unwanted attitudes. When you dream of others advancing and leaving you behind, it might reflect fears of being overtaken by the competition.

Adversary- Competing emotions. Inner conflict. The opposite of who you think you are; your true self. Aggressive behavior directed at you. The unconscious foe within you. Confronting the Shadow brings about healing.

Adversity - Distressful times in your life. Low esteem, thoughts of bad luck, catastrophe, disaster. Dreaming of overcoming adversity is taking control, being positive in the darkest moments.

Advertisement - A need to pay attention to your higher self or aspects that are productive and are ignored. A need to express yourself better or the need for the unconscious to express itself so you consciously understand more about your true self. Drawing attention to yourself; seeking attention.

Affair - Dreams of a spouse having an affair with no real reason to be suspicious should be seen as your own possible insecurities . Look to the possibility of the unconscious mind wanting/needing to expose itself in a manner that uses an affair as a way to inform the conscious mind. If you dream that you are cheating, then perhaps it is a feeling of being sexually unsatisfied, or unappreciated.

Affection - The need for love and acceptance. Your personality is one of a loving, affectionate person.

Agree - Mutual consent of the unconscious self and conscious mind. Often a sign you are traveling the right path. Successfully working to find a solution.

Aggression - Aggression in your waking life that you have not acknowledged consciously. Some instinctive part of your psyche that has been neglected and is becoming rebellious and needs attention consciously. A threatening situation in your life.

Agriculture - Cultivating your natural instincts. Trying to work out your problems in a very down to earth efficient way. Hard work produces satisfied results.

Aids - Dreams of having Aids may indicate feeling threatened by some indefencable force. A dire lack of harmony in your life.

Air - The spiritual aspect within the psyche. Hot air colliding with cold air may indicate opposite forces within your life.

Air Conditioner - A time to 'cool off' to something or someone, or some aspect you possess.

Understanding the definition of a word may provide clues to its symbolic meaning. Look it up athyperdictionary

Airplane- Soaring to new heights. It may be you are looking to go beyond your capablilities. But it also could indicate new heights are what you need. Spiritual awakening. A sexual symbol representing the penis. Liberation, release, transcendence. Escaping from daily routines.

Airport - A desire or need for a new departure or new adventure in your personal life. A foreign country may represent your unconscious, in which the dream is telling you that you have not arrived at your desired destination. A busy airport is an indication of ambitious new beginnings.

Alley - Your unconscious or subconscious. walled in with no escape. Backing into a situation.

Alligator - Treachery, deceit and danger. Power of expression. Fear of misusing verbal expression. The power of the unconscious mind needing to express itself {repressed emotions}. Dangerous unconscious motivations that need controlling.

Alloy - Mental complications involving conflicting emotional situations in your life. Impairing the quality of one aspect of yourself by injecting too much of another quality.

Almanac - Trying to forecast situations before they happen {dreams tend to do this by means of compensation}. The temptation of easy of easy fortunes and pleasures at the cost of not doing what needs to be done.

Alone - A fear of being alone (if the dream is negative). A need to go it alone (if dream is positive).

Altar - May represent a death and resurrection, an ending to some event or relationship and the beginning of a new one. May symbolize a union of oppossing emotions.

Aluminium - May symbolize something of value with regard to your personal development. Silver has associations with the moon, and may therefore symbolize the feminine; intuition; or the unconscious.

Ambulance - An emergency, but not necessarily in a literal sense. Pay attention to the situation at hand, in the dream as well as in your waking life. A vehicle for healing, such as a part of you that has been neglected. A need to pay attention to your health. Unhealthy situations that require healing.

Ambush - Repressing emotions or aspects that are capable of attacking your well being at a later time in life. A clear indication of danger.

Ammonia - Clouded thinking. Deluted emotions that can lead to explosive situations.

Ammunition - Dreaming of ammunition shows your determination to use all means in your power to get to what you want.

Amor - Displaying love, perhaps a need to love oneself. Illicit love and pleasures. Are you tempting yourself with too much of a good thing?

Amputate - A need or desire to remove unpleasant emotions or situations in life. Removing unwanted parts of yourself.

Anaconda - Restriction of some aspect of the psyche self; repression. A snake may symbolize sexuality; psychic energy, or the power of Nature; intuitive wisdom; the unconscious.

Anaesthetic - May symbolize some kind of death wish or some longed-for escape from painful circumstances. Allowing the unconscious to inform the conscious self.

Anal Sex - A need to express your repressed sexual desires. Obtaining what you desire by going through unorthodoxed methods. The unconscious trying to penetrate the conscious mind. Illicit desires.

Ancestor - The natural aspect of your being; your true self. Holding on to traditionsl values. Dreaming of your ancestors you find an inner strength, a sense of security and belonging.

House DreamsHouses in a dream most always symbolize the dreamer; different aspects of the psyche being represented by the different rooms, levels in the house, outer and/or inner aspects. It is your self-image, yet at the same can reveal the inner parts. Typically the different rooms of a house may symbolize the different emotions or complexes. The oldest, the deepest layers of the unconscious - what Jung called the 'collective unconscious' will be seen as basement and the hidden spaces below that level.

Anchor - A desire for security, for someone or something that is reliable in your life. A constraint that prevents you from fulfilling yourself, hindering your progress. Stability because you are anchored in principles and values.

Ancient - Old parts of the psyche that inform the senses with truth instead of ego-centered desires and impulses. Your wise, mature self.

Androgynous - The balanced psyche. A balanced life. Incorporating all aspects of who you are into a balanced self. Bringing together opposing forces, attitudes, emotions.

Anecdote - A simple answer to seemingly difficult questions. A need t add humor to your life. An account of who you are.

Anesthesia - Trying to avoid dealing straightforwardly with your problems. A loss of bodily sensation with or without loss of consciousness.

Anger - You are frustrated or angry at something or someone. Some type of aggression in your life. Conflict or negative emotions or attitudes.

Angling - Fishing for answers in the unconscious. Being taken in, hook, line and sinker.

Animals - Parents may appear in a dream in the guise of animals. It then would represent a love-hate feeling toward that parent. May represent other people in which the meaning would symbolize a slyness or aggressiveness that is characteristic of that person. May be symbolic of some primative or animal part of your psyche; thus the emotional response to the animal would represent a fear (if the animal in your dream is feared) of an instinctive urge. May represent your animal nature; aggression or anger buried in your unconscious. Perhaps you need to pay more attention to your instincts instead of listening to others.

Antelope - Grace and strenght which may symbolize fertility - the power of growth within your psyche. If repressed, it could mean destructive/threatening forces in the unconscious.

Antenna - May symbolize communication, your own skills or communication from the unconscious. Are you receiving alnd understanding all that you should?

Anticlockwise-You may be going against your true nature, taking a wrong direction, making wrong decisions. Going to the left may signify moving over from a cerebral to a more intuitive appraoch to life. {The hero in mythology always takes the left hand path, one of intuitiveness and less of social duty.

Antidote - Unconscious solutions to those things that poison the conscious life. Curing what ills you.

Antique - Information available from the deeper layers of the unconscious {your wise self}. Past experiences that are of great value.

What Is A Metaphor?A metaphor is where one thing is spoken as if it were another. The house in a dream is most often a metaphor for the dreamer, the house being a representation of the dreamer. The house would represent the dreamer's psychological, physical and/or spiritual condition, a proxy for the complexes. In most instances you should take dream symbols as metaphorical references to the dreamer's condition and not a literal interpretation, to fully understand the message in the dream.

Apprentice - Learning how to be skillful. Conscious aspects needing guidance from the unconscious; learning to use instincts and intuition.

Ark- highly mystic and of a sacred nature, it might refer to something or someone you need to protect and cherish deeply.

Arm - An arm is an extension of yourself. Right arm often symbolizes sending or giving, left arm often symbolizes receiving or bringing in. Left arm would also symbolize the creative/metaphysical self, whereas the right arm would symbolize social duty/physical self. Losing an arm may suggest an inability to care for yourself and others.

Arm(s)-Arms are what we do things with. They therefore represent our ability or
effectiveness, creativity or usefullness. Aches or pains in the arms may
represent feelings of inadequacy, or a loss of self-esteem.

Armadillo - Covering up and making it hard for others to reach you. Covering up unconscious contents.

Armageddon - A fear of something coming to and end with dire consequences as a result. Experiencing extreme stress and lots of tensions in your life. Fear of death, or an end to something in your life. Overly religious attitudes.

Artist - May represent the unfulfilled creative and/or intuitive side of your
nature.

Ascent- Climbing higher or ascending to a higher position may signify simply
high achievement. an arduous mountain to climb may signify a hard but rewarding
task. May represent the acquiring of a more spiritual, les worldly perspective
or lifestyle. On the other hand it may represent a state of mind that is too
idealistic, or too much in the grip of fantasy. What is ascending may be
unconscious knowledge that is ready for conscious attention.

Ass- May signify stupidity-your own! A symbol for animal impulses that are
unconscious, intuitive.

Assassin- Those aspects that tend to 'kill' off potentialities. Subverting realizations of one's goals by one's own actions or by outside forces.

What Is Personality?Personality is a hypothetical construct that we use in an attempt to understand two noticeable things about human behavior: The first is that, within an individual, there is a consistency in behavior from time to time and across situations. The second is that the pattern of consistency differs from person to person.

Attack - Conscious attitudes under attack, often from the unconscious self. Feeling threatened by someone or some thing. Real life experiences of being attacked, literally, psychologically or verbally.

Attic-The highest room in the house {you} where all types of things are stored {past experiences, emotions, attitudes}, most likely to do with ecentric self. They may be repressed or just stored until something wakens them. The thinking mind {as opposed to intuitive and instincts}. The human head.

Auditorium- An auditorium is where an audience sits. The audience may symbolize your total self, all the aspects or emotions of your psyche. It is your total self.

Aunt- Feminine part of the psyche; qualities or characteristics you identify with particular individual which are projected aspects of yourself. {see anima/animus}

Automobile - You, your ego, your personality, your life and it's direction. Who is driving? Where are you sitting? If you are in the driver's seat then you are in control of (or wish to take control) of your life. If someone else is in the driver's seat, they may be controlling your life. Are you riding on all four wheels? If not, something may be missing in your life. Are the tires flat? You may feel your life is going no where. Are there others with you? These may be unknown (or known but repressed) aspects of your personality. What color is the automobile? If it is red if may symbolize anger on your part.

Autumn- A symbol of transition. It may symbolize the ending of a particular type
of achievement and a beginning of something new. may represent your 'autumn'
years, the second half of life. The tree bears fruit in the autumn, so too your
autumn years if lived in a balanced way.

Avalanche - A fear of disaster. If the avalanche is snow or ice, it may symbolize
'frozen' emotions that threaten to overcome you. Those things in life that tend to be overwhelming at times.

Awakening - May be a symbol of a new awareness that is dawning in your life, or
one that needs to be.